Sounds like you've done your due diligence as a friend & as a rider that's trying to educate. Sometimes they listen...sometimes they don't.

You can lead a horse to water but...

 

funny thing. i have a similar situation where a certain person wants to get a 800cc ducati evo for his first bike. unlike your friend, this guy has zero riding experience. what do i say? i told him he will drop it and cry, but he seems to think it won't happen. hmmm

 

Yeah i mean i keep my bike in his garage so hes probably ridden it more than i have the past few months since ive been at school. I leave the key in it i dont give a sh*t if he rides it. If he wrecks it i know itll get fixed or replaced so whenever i want it i just go and get it. So yeah hes not completely new and has some experience but hes still kind of ignorant and is on planet denial. ^jpan i hope youre not talking about the 848 evo cuz i dont think they made a hypermotard 800 evo. Id cry if he got an 848 evo i couldnt bare to see one of those things go down. So pretty. But yeah half the time people dont respect these bikes or what they can do and think theyll be fine buuuuuuuuut theyre wrong. But hey i say we stick these two kids together and tell them to have fun. Im just gonna bust his ***** about this until he finally makes up his mind on what hes gonna get and try to help him out from there. Hell im still a new rider but i know im not ignorant so whatever

 

Good plan. Hopefully he will learn from you to ride responsibly and safely. Bottom line is you want to keep your best friend as alive and well, and have fun together

 

The person I've ridden the most with has a K7 Gixxer 1000. He bought a 1000 because of the straight line acceleration. He's getting into twisties more and more but acceleration is his main thing. I do think he's going to get hurt some day and I do tell him to slow the **** down sometimes. I know he rode to work a few times without a jacket (and probably no gloves) and jokingly said he only wears a helmet because of the law (then again, he has the top of the line Shoei racing helmet so he does care for his head somewhat). My friend is probably a bit more experienced that yours but Mr. Gixxer does ride harder than he can sometimes. I do worry he will go down and when he does, he'll probably go down hard.

Hopefully, if he does get a 1000 he'll scare himself enough to slow the **** down. Then again, you said he used to drag race (cars?) so that might not happen very easily.. He's concerned about looking cool? Not sure how 260 looks in leathers but there's some very nice looking gear out there and plenty of brands to choose from.

I think we can all agree that a rider looks much cooler in gear (even if it's just helmet, gloves and jacket) than in a tank top and flip flops.

 

The CBR's I've rode besides the F4i (929, 954, & '08 1000), don't really feel any bigger except in raw power. A 250 will carry him at the speed limit just fine...besides it's all the faster LEGALLY you are allowed to go on the streets & you said he thinks track days are stupid.

BTW...I'm 6'-7" and around 235#...I find my F4i to be very comfortable for long rides.

 

You've done your due dilligence. Now only ride twisties with him and 50+ milers minimum, out in the middle of nowhere so no one can see him & see if he thinks that's stupid too.

When he bitches, tell him to drive his whining straight-line *** home so you can enjoy the rest of your day.

V-rod would be a pretty good choice for him, whether he wants to admit it or not. I'm amazed how much fun they are to ride, and that 1300 powerplant is remarkably smooth & punchy.

 

I think everyone else is right that you've done all you can here.

The only other way I could think of to break his preconception is for him to rent a liter bike (if there's anywhere to do that out there) and go riding with him. On the straightaways he'll be tempted to open it up, and that might scare him a little in terms of the power. If you can get him in some twisties and dust him he might have an additional appreciation that it's not all about the power, but also about the skill. Sometimes people just need to have their ego taken down a bit to make a good decision, and it'd be better that it happen before he goes flying off the bike.

If he can at least appreciate that it might be worthwhile to start on something smaller than a liter bike (so that he can get the skills to -really- flog his bike when he gets it) he might be open to the argument that bikes largely keep their value and he probably won't be out any/much money when he decides to upgrade to his bigger bike. So it's not getting a smaller bike in lieu of the liter bike, but getting a smaller bike and then trading it in (for almost full value!) for a bigger bike later.

Or, maybe he'll just do what he wants. In that case, best of luck to him. Folks -do- start on bigger bikes and turn out OK, but you know him, and if you're worried about him, that's probably a good assessment.

 

I think you did the best you could. I don't like the idea of new riders starting on a ype R 600, let alone a literbike. One of my buddies started on a cbr1000rr and wrecked it. He pieced it back together and now it just sits in his shed because he barely rides it. Whats the point of owning something you are to afraid of to enjoy?